U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday made it official: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will withhold approximately $160 million from California after the state refused to cancel "over 17,000 illegally issued" CDLs by January 5.
The news on Wednesday followed reporting to the same effect Monday, when California DMV confirmed to Overdrive it had no intention of meeting DOT's deadline.
FMCSA issued a Final Determination after California refused to cancel the 17,000 licenses on time, "allowing foreign drivers with invalid licenses to continue operating on American roads," said a release from DOT.
California had gone back and forth with FMCSA since September, when an audit of the state's non-domiciled CDL issuance found approximately 25% of the state's CDLs to non-citizens had been issued out of step with federal regs.
Mostly, the problem stemmed from the state issuing licenses with terms longer than applicants' work authorization or legal presence in the U.S. California contends that's not a violation of federal regs, though it concedes that it does violate its own state's laws.
[Related: California refuses to revoke 20,000 wrongly issued CDLs in note to DOT]
As such, California in November sent notice to 20,000 drivers (the 17,000 plus an additional 3,000 with other errors identified) that their licenses would be revoked. In early December, California backtracked, but FMCSA stopped them.
Finally, right before the New Year holiday, California decided to give those 20,000 non-domiciled CDL holders until March 6, 2026, in hopes it could resolve FMCSA's concerns and not ever end up revoking the licenses.
DOT, however, has been clear since September, when it ordered California to revoke all wrongly issued CDLs.
The back and forth has sometimes gotten heated between Duffy and California Governor Gavin Newsom, and today's announcement was more of the same.
“It’s reckoning day for Gavin Newsom and California. Our demands were simple: follow the rules, revoke the unlawfully-issued licenses to dangerous foreign drivers, and fix the system so this never happens again,” said Duffy. “Gavin Newsom has failed to do so -- putting the needs of illegal immigrants over the safety of the American people. While Gavin may not care about protecting you and your family on our roads, the Trump Administration does. We’re pulling this funding to ensure federal tax dollars don’t fund this charade.”
[Related: California explains why it upgraded Jashanpreet Singh's CDL days before fatal I-10 crash]
DOT has threatened Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania and Minnesota for similar reasons, giving those states 30 days to come into compliance. Early indications show each jurisdiction seems to be falling in line.
California stands alone now, both in its refusal to enforce English language proficiency regulations and in its interpretation of federal CDL credentialing regulations.
“Federal regulations are clear: states must correct safety deficiencies on a schedule mutually agreed upon by the Agency, and California failed to meet its commitment to rescind these unlawfully-issued licenses by January 5,” said FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs. “We will not accept a corrective plan that knowingly leaves thousands of drivers holding noncompliant licenses behind the wheel of 80,000-pound trucks in open defiance of federal safety regulations.”
FMCSA will now withhold "nearly $160 million of funds from California via the National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Block Grant," DOT said.
The Sikh Coalition and the Asian Law Caucus, who were suing California DMV over the 20,000 non-domiciled CDL revocations, praised the state for not revoking the CDLs.
California is also suing DOT over losing $40 million in funding for the state's refusal to enforce ELP regs.
[Related: Sikh Coalition sues California to get non-domiciled CDL issuance back]
